Development of Clay Deposits Owned by the Alberhill Coal and Clay Company

Written for THE CLAY-WORKER.

PACIFIC COAST NEWS.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA is making efforts through the Riverside-county chambers of commerce and the commercial clubs of Los Angeles to bring more clay products manufacturers to the vicinity so that the immense deposits of clays in the southern section of the Btate may be utilized. Several existing plants are preparing to make extensive enlargements to care for the already available trade and others are contemplating adding new lines to their products.

Construction has begun on the half million dollar chinaware plant of the Empire China Co. at Burbank. The Standard Pottery Co. has begun the manufacture of china and art pottery at its Los Angeles plant and several eastern potters have recently visited to investigate the opportunities for large scale manufacture of sanitary wares. Los Angeles has also made great strides in the development of high-resistance refractories within the last few months and although the chemical industries are asking for needed pottery, local manufacturers are refusing orders for terra cotta structural shapes because of inadequate manufacturing facilities.

It is estimated that capital to the amount of $3,000,000 is invested in existing clay products plants in Southern California alone. Industries said to be especially needed are factories for making sanitary pottery, full lines of insulators required for power lines, industrial plants heating and lighting systems, conduits of every size and capacity, architectural terra cotta on a large scale, and chemical stoneware to parallel the tremendously growing chemical industries of this region.

A prominent citizen of Los Angeles recently said that a solid foundation has been laid for the safe and profitable investment of capital in a great development of the clay products industries on the Pacific coast. Important reactions from the United States government's research work during the war are about to accrue to the Los Angeles clay industries through investigations and discoveries made during that period which were of a permanent value to the industry. A laboratory then established has continued to function ever since having been responsible for proving the Curtis theories for the vitrifax manufacture. At the present time research is going on in the same laboratory to' prove the insulator values of the local clays.

Clays from all over southern California are being constantly subjected to scrutiny and scientific tests with satisfactory results.

A veritable mountain of clay was uncovered during the progress of this research work at Alberhill, Riverside county, 74 miles southeast of Los Angeles. A variety of clays is included in the mountain which is owned by the Alberhill Coal and Clay Co. of Los Angeles, of which James H. Hill is general manager. In speaking of the clay mountain at Alberhill, a visitor, Charles J. Kirk, president of the Universal Sanitary Manufacturing Co., Newcastle, Pa., who carefully went over the various workings and shafts, said that although previously skeptical he was amazed at such a revelation as stood before him.

In speaking of plans for the future James H. Hill, head of the Alberhill Coal and Clay Co. and of the war research work for the government, said: "We have a tract two and a half miles long and a mile wide with proven clay deposits almost inexhaustible, including coal, for producer gas, glazing compounds and adjacent deposits of silica and feldspar for china and magnesite for refractories; Including also an abundance of water for industrial and domestic supply."

Of 120,000 tons of clay mined in 1920 at Alberhill, the Los Angeles Pressed Brick Co. used 54,000 tODS for brick manufacturing. The addition of a late model continuous kiln is now contemplated so that this concern's capacity will be doubled during the present year.

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